…that benefit everyone, including the client

I’ve been in business for many years now, and I’ve seen how business owners react differently to systems, processes and procedures. Some naturally embrace them. Some do it with guidance. But some struggle, preferring to wing it, to fly by the seat of their pants, and hope for the best.

But if you’re looking to grow your business, it’s vital to not only have systems, processes and procedures in place but to have them well documented. Everyone should have access to them, and everyone needs to follow them. And I mean everyone – from the top down.

Managers need to lead by example.

3 significant advantages for having documented systems, processes and procedures

1. Internal business benefit

The more systems you put in place in your business, the more automated you’ll be able to make it. And you’ll find that when you’ve automated your business systems, that your business will run more efficiently.

Everyone will know who does what, how they do it, and when they do it. It saves confusion within your team and makes it easier to onboard new members.

2. Enables the business to be scalable

You’ll find that systems allow your business to be scalable and grow. It becomes a matter of duplicating your resources to do the same thing. For example, if you’re offering a new product, you’d follow the same process you used to launch your last successful product, and you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

When you’re ready to grow, having your systems and procedures documented is hugely beneficial. It also becomes an invaluable tool for onboarding new team members who can easily pick up what you do, learn on the job, and quickly become a highly efficient member of your team.

3. Client experience

If you’ve got systems in place, clients will see that you run an efficient business, and you’ll likely exceed your client’s expectations. Your finger will always be on the pulse, and you won’t worry about missing things. You’ll know what you need to do and when to do it by.

Your client will be impressed by your experience, and you’ll be confident that you’re providing clients with a consistently high level of service.

Having systems, processes and procedures is essential for virtual teams

So many of us are now working virtually, either by choice or by force. To ensure you’re all working on the same page, you need to have documented systems, processes and procedures to ensure all your team is working the same way.

Here are some examples of what can happen if your business isn’t systemised. And if you’re one of those fly by the seat of your pants sort, this should provide some food for thought!

• New client’s details aren’t captured to a central CRM for all team members to access.
• Elements of your operation are duplicated or just plain forgotten. I.e. more than one team member does the same job, not knowing someone else has, or no one does the job thinking someone else will!
• Invoices to clients are missed or incorrect due to work not being recorded correctly.
• If more than one person is performing the same job, your business won’t be running efficiently at all as you’re double handling jobs.
• You may miss new leads that come through or fail to follow up with them if you haven’t got a system in place that acts to nurture leads and clients.

I’m sure you could add to this list if you’ve ever made a mistake or forgotten something in your business. Did you work out a system and document it, so the issue doesn’t happen again? I hope you did!

Systems, processes and procedures in our business

Before I started Interim Business Solutions, I had worked in the area of Quality Assurance. This experience gave me a great head start when it came to starting and running my business.

From day one I established a procedure manual and have kept that a ‘live’ document, updating it when changes are made to either a process, or a new/changed software is incorporated into the business.

Some of the productivity tools we use to manage our systems and processes with our virtual team and clients include:

• Google Forms – To gather new clients’ details
• CapsuleCRM – All contact details and customer relationship tasks
• Asana – Client task/project management
• Dropbox – File sharing
• Google Doc – Collaboration with multiple users
• Xero – Bookkeeping & accounting 

How are your systems, processes and procedures?

I hope you respond with ‘great’! But if you don’t, I hope you’re starting to think about implementing them into your business. Flow charts are a great starting point. For example, create a chart for client enquiries. Start with the initial contact, how it’s handled, how a client signs up, how the work is performed, how the work is delivered, and then if the client is followed up.

Do this with all your processes, and you’ll have your business ticking along like clock-work in no time! Plus, when it comes to the time you need to outsource, it’s just a matter of handing it over.

P.S: You might find this Case Study about Business Systems and Processes interesting.

The post Why do businesses need documented systems, processes and procedures? appeared first on Interim Business Solutions.

How are you going? Any funny stories to share?

I’ve been practising self-iso since the 16th March when I felt it was time to ‘assume’ I had the virus (I didn’t) and do the right thing. I would have liked to see our borders closed a bit earlier, and as for THAT ship – the one ship that needed to be stopped! Anyway, back on track…

It’s business as usual this way.

Yes, I’ve been impacted a little by what I call the domino effect. Some clients are affected and therefore don’t need my services as much and so on. But I’m thankful most of my clients still need support in one way or another.

But one super clear thing is that everyone has been impacted to a varying degree, and we’re all cutting expenses where we feel we need to. It’s a hideous time for many of us!

As I’ve worked from home for a while now, I know it’s not always easy to stay motivated. There’s still a cupboard to clean out, kids wanting something (now they’ve been forced to stay home with you), laundry to do, a garden to sit in and read a book, etc.

So rather than harp on about the doom and gloom of this pandemic, I wanted to share some ideas on how you can give your business some extra love while you’re stuck at home in self-isolation. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably got an extra bit of time on your hands too.

My 20 top business productivity, boredom-busting self-isolation tips

1. Review and tidy your mailing list(s) – unsubscribe from all the ‘junkie’ ones you’re receiving (I’ve noticed a massive increase in spammy ones)
2. Write your next two newsletters, or more if you get on a roll and schedule them
3. Back-up anything that hasn’t been backed up for a while (this is a great habit to get into)
4. Update your email signature if it’s not been done for a few years
5. Review your files and archive anything old (as dull as this may sound it’ll make things like tax time a heap easier)
6. Write thank you/touching base notes to clients to show you’re still there for them, and appreciate them during this time
7. Read a business book (you’re still allowed to shop online!)
8. Attend webinars or watch TED Talks
9. Brainstorm blog post ideas and write them for the rest of the year
10. Register for a free e-learning course or YouTube tutorial (there are so many special deals on high-quality online courses too if you hunt around)
11. Listen to new podcasts
12. Host a Skype/Zoom coffee (or Friday night wine) catch-up
13. Brainstorm marketing ideas on how you can alter your services to suit the current climate
14. Review your website copy, check that images are loading OK and your contact form works
15. Learn a new program/technology (see below for some ideas)
16. Implement a CRM if you haven’t already (there are a few free ones under a certain number of people or decent paid ones)
17. If you have a CRM undertake some maintenance (check emails are still valid, update business addresses and so on)
18. Follow-up any warm leads to see how they are (a friendly ‘hello, how are you going?’ can often encourage a sale)
19. Check all links on key-touchpoints are working
20. Review your business expenses (what can you cut down on – check if your subscriptions are offering discounts during this time too)

Business productivity tools to explore

I’ve implemented most of the things on my top 20 list. While creating my list, I came across a few new tools that I thought I’d share with you. Check these out:

• Milkshake App. This is an alternative to Linktree for Instagram, a free bio link which you can customise to link to key sales and landing pages.
• Zenkit To-Do. My most favourite To-Do App, Wunderlist, was bought by Microsoft some years ago, and they’re finally closing it down on the 6^th I happen to discover Zenkit To-Do, which is so like Wunderlist – I got very excited. I was able to import my current lists/tasks from Wunderlist directly into Zenkit To-Do, and I’m all set with a new To-Do App. There’s also ZenKit project management, but I use Asana for project management.
• Zoom. Like many, I didn’t have my own Zoom account pre COVID-19. I do now after a fabulous 2-hour chat with clients in the UK on Easter Saturday.

Have you got any business productivity or self-isolation stories to share?

I’d love to hear from you if you’ve got any further ideas you can share with our community. And of course, if you’ve got fun self-iso stories, please let us know so we can share a laugh and brighten our day.

The post 20 ways to ramp up your business productivity during COVID-19 self-isolation appeared first on Interim Business Solutions.

With little to no customer service skills or care, our first agent was sacked after week 3. A tad rattled; we took a short breather before we found a brilliant agent at another real estate company.  Their customer care was spot on, and we sold our home in just 2 weeks.

I was feeling the added stress of moving my home office. The thought of the upheaval while still trying to work and look after my clients was quite overwhelming.

But I got there! We are now living in the Yarra Valley (the place we always wanted to move to) and I’m once again feeling organised and settled. I’m in a lovely new home office, and while appreciating my new surroundings, I thought I’d share my top tips for a home office move.

1. Prepare for the home office move early

As a natural organiser and administrator, I had plans in place very early on. This made the home office move so much easier. The moment I found out the exact day the move was going to take place, I shut my office for a week and had plans in place to help clients when they needed it. This reduced my stress of not being able to help clients while everything was unplugged, and I was offline.

2. Sort and throw out

Moving your home office is the perfect time to sort and get rid of anything that you’ve been hoarding over the years. I’d gotten to a point where I was so over stuff! My entire house ended up decluttered. In my home office, paper records in the filing cabinet were shredded, old cords, cables and gadgets were discarded, and all those useless things I’d accumulated over the years were thrown out.

3. Use the floor plan to place office furniture

When we’d found our new home, I used the floor plan provided to make sure all the office furniture and equipment was going to fit into the space I planned on using as my home office. I decided to use the large ‘media room’ which was perfect – fitting in two desks, a filing cabinet, bookcase and my shredder. This made the moving day more streamlined as I knew exactly where things were going, and it made the re-setup of my home office quicker.

4. Connect utilities and phone

Luckily for us, we were given access to our new home at least two weeks before moving day. This allowed me to make sure all the utilities were connected, and we didn’t have that added stress on moving day (no one wants to arrive at a home and find no electricity!). My office phone was not affected as it’s a 1300 number which diverts to my mobile. Easy!

5. Connect the internet and have a backup plan

When you’re running a virtual home office, the most important thing is internet access. For 17 years, we’d had terrific ADSL internet with Internode. It was always reliable, and the only time I lost the internet was when we had power outages.

My new home office internet is now run on the NBN, something I’d been dreading (and avoiding) for years due to hearing bad stories from business colleagues. It did take 2 weeks to set up, however I tethered to my phone data so I could continue working (a great back up plan!). And now I don’t know why I was avoiding the NBN – it’s really speedy!

6. Advise of changes to contact details

Once you’ve moved (or when you know where you’re going), it’s important to let your clients and suppliers know your change of details. For my business, this included my website contact page, email signature and all documents that had contact details. I’d had a PO Box since 2010 but given that snail mail is virtually non-existent these days, and since we were moving out of the area, I decided to cancel it. If you’re unsure of what mail may still go to your old business address, you can redirect it to your new home office for a couple of months if need be.

7. Embrace the change

As Socrates would say…

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new”.

People say a change is as good as a holiday, and those who know me well, know I love my tropical holidays. All I can say is that the change has been amazing, although some parts of the home office moving journey were like hitting patches of turbulence!

And there you have it – my top 7 tips for planning and surviving a home office move.

If you’ve ever had a home office move, I’d love for you to share your tips too.

The post How to prepare for a home office move appeared first on Interim Business Solutions.

The Code is administered by the Business Council of Australia and came into effect on the 1 July 2017. You can learn more about the initiative via the Business Council’s dedicated Australian Supplier Payment Code website. We encourage you to join us and become a signatory also.

At Interim Business Solutions, we are committed to the following and respect all suppliers’ payment terms by:

• Paying supplier’s invoices by their stated due date, and
• Paying our valuable subcontractors within 24-48 hours of receipt of their invoices.

If every business did their bit to ensure every business has a healthy cash flow, what a difference that would make to the health of all Australian businesses, large and small.

“When the entire business ecosystem thrives, the whole country thrives”

A copy of the Supplier Payment Code we abide by can be read below. We have also added this as a separate ‘Supplier Payment Code‘ page to our website so it’s easily accessible for new visitors to our website.

Effective: 9 July 2019

The post We’re a signatory to the Australian Supplier Payment Code appeared first on Interim Business Solutions.

But if your giveaway looks less than ordinary, people won’t want it. You’ve got to make a great first impression to attract new leads, and the way you present your offer goes a long way.

That’s where we can help with our e-Book formatting services. We’ll help you to create a well presented and designed e-Book that makes customers happy to give you their details.

We made two e-Books look good for a legal website

Jamie from Pod Legal approached us to help with e-Book formatting and branding of his two Word docs so he could add to the one e-Book he already had on offer.

Our team converted these into beautifully branded, downloadable e-Books. We sourced relevant images for the covers, formatted the text to be consistent, and ensured their branding was looking professional. The e-Books ended up looking very smart and you can download them yourself to take a look on the Pod Legal website.

Here’s what Jamie had to say about his e-Book formatting experience:

“I recently engaged Kirsty and her team, to format some Pod Legal branded e-Books for our firm.

Not only did Interim Business Solutions deliver the newly formatted e-Books on time, but they provided valuable guidance and recommendations, on the visual presentation of the e-Books.

Were we happy with the service and e-Books? You betcha!”

– Jamie White, Pod Legal

Entice more signups to your list with our e-Book formatting service

If you’re trying to build your list, you don’t want the look of your e-Book offer letting you down. Bad formatting and poor images will turn people away.

If you’d like to chat about how we can help bring your downloadable e-Book back to life, give us a call on 1300 377 427 or drop an inquiry via our Contact page.

P.S. Check out 60 ways a VA (and team) can support you and your business.

The post Case Study | e-Book formatting and branding for a legal firm appeared first on Interim Business Solutions.

If you’re only new to using a virtual assistant, it’s natural that you wouldn’t know what happens next. Sure, you’ve found a VA that you think will fit in brilliantly with your business, but what now – how do you start?

Most VAs will have a thorough on-boarding system that will help you start your outsourcing journey.

To give you some ideas of what to expect when signing up for virtual assistance, we’d love to share our on-boarding process with you.

Here’s how we on-board a new VA client

We keep our on-boarding process simple and over the years our clients have told us how straightforward they’ve found it. It all starts with our clients being able to digitally sign the engagement letter.

Here’s the process:

• The initial inquiry:

This comes through in various ways – from our website contact form, a phone call, a PM on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter or an email. We highly suggest that asking for a quick phone call is the best way as you can gauge whether we’re the right fit. It’s also the fastest way to fully determine what you need and for us to see if we’ve got the capacity to help you.

• Yes, we can help!

Once we’ve determined that we can assist you, we’d send you a copy of our ‘Services and Pricing Schedule’, together with a copy of a ‘How it Works’ document and ’60 Ways a VA can support you and your business’. Depending on what you require, we have ‘How it Works’ documents to cover transcription, outbound calls, copywriting, e-newsletters and social media support.

• An engagement letter is sent:

If you choose to engage our services, you’ll be sent an Engagement Letter based on your requirements. Support will not start without this letter in place. It avoids any misunderstandings and makes sure all parties are on a level playing field. We’ve had very few issues over the years as our engagement letter outlines our terms and conditions very clearly.

• The engagement letter is signed:

We won’t start any work until the engagement letter is returned. To make it as easy as possible for you, we prepare the letter in Word and create a PDF version. This PDF is then uploaded to Adobe Sign and sent via email to our client. They can digitally sign the document and it’s returned to us via the app.

• The clauses:

Our engagement letter has a clause that will advise you that you’ll be added to our Newsletter and client mailing lists, so you’re kept up to date with new services, office happenings and closure periods. This covers us for the spam act. By signing the engagement letter, you’re accepting this clause and giving us permission to contact you.

• We know when to follow up:

We’re not in the habit of stalking our clients, but Adobe Sign indicates when the engagement letter has been viewed. This allows us to know when we should follow up with you. We get that life is busy (probably why you need a VA in the first place) so we’ll send you a gentle reminder to see if you’ve got any further questions and to sign the document so we can get started.

• Signed, sealed, delivered:

Once we have an email notification that you’ve signed the letter, we’ll file a copy for our records. We’ll then send you a welcome email, including a link to our ‘New Client Information’ form. This form is general and the details will get entered into our CRM. It also clearly sets out our office hours, how we prefer to communicate, etc.

So, it’s as easy as that. We’re now ready to kick-start a new working relationship with our new client.

If you’re curious about starting work with a VA but you’re not sure what you could be outsourcing, we’d love for you to download a copy of our eBook, ’60 Ways a VA can support you and your business’. And if you’ve got any questions about what you can outsource to our team, please get in touch.

The post Our on-boarding process for a new client needing virtual assistance appeared first on Interim Business Solutions.

It sounds like ages ago now, but back in 2012, I wrote a blog post to introduce myself, the virtual assistant behind Interim Business Solutions, to my new clients and followers. I had gone through a business growth spurt and knowing that we’re all humans, I felt it was a good idea to reveal my human side.

Six years have since past.

And as we all know, so much can change in six years.

I’ve had a few more grey hairs popping out for starters! My kids have both left school leaving me with more time to focus on my business (and travel of course). And my networks have continued to grow.

As a result, I thought it was time to re-introduce myself to you all. Even if you’ve known me longer than six years, here are some fun facts you may not know.

More about me (when I’m not running my VA business)

• I’m 50 something (in the lower end), and I’m happily married with two children, one adult and one almost adult.
• I live in the leafy outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.
• Interim Business Solutions turns (lucky) 13 on the 24th of November.
• I run my business from home, and although I once hated my home office, I now love it. Read why!
• I love to get out into my garden when I find the time. At the minute, I’m passing weeds off as plants!
• I’ve grown up surrounded by pets including a Scotch Collie dog, chickens, a duck, budgies and horses. Now I only have a grumpy old cat (who I adore).
• I hate cooking and housework (but luckily my son is amazing in the kitchen).
• I can’t explain why (as I seriously don’t know), but my nickname was Ollie during my University days.
• When I was younger, I wanted to be a park ranger or a mounted policewoman – but I became a primary school teacher instead (all far from what I do now).
• I had the best time studying at Deakin University in Geelong, where I gained a BA in Education.
• I’ve also gained a Graduate Diploma in Educational Administration from Melbourne University.
• Despite what you may think, I’m not a geek! Computer hardware scares me!
• After Uni, I lived overseas for 2 ½ years and travelled through Europe, Scandinavia, North Africa and the Middle East.
• This time overseas cemented my love for travelling, and I get the travel bug every year (often being called to exotic destinations).
• I’ve travelled to more than 35 countries, but there’s still so many more to explore.
• I’m itching to return to Spain, Portugal and Italy, and visit Myanmar before it becomes the next big tourist destination.
• I haven’t eaten red meat since 1984, but I’m a sucker for Japanese and a good salad.
• My favourite wine is a full-bodied, oaky Chardonnay and I love Friday nights (which always include a drop or two of wine!).
• I was an athletic child – I ran everywhere, rode horses, played tennis, softball, badminton, cricket, and I could kick a footy better than most of the boys. Now I’m a power-waddler.
• I’m a country bumpkin at heart and not a city slicker.
• I can’t handle noisy crowds.
• Some of my favourite movies include Baraka, the Bourne trilogy, The Last of the Mohicans, The Piano, Mongol, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Help, Hidden Figures and Hunt for the Wilderpeople – I could keep going!
• I have built my business successfully using social media – mainly Twitter.
• People I would love to meet and chat to over a meal (or wine) include Barak Obama, Simon Sinek, Susan Cain, Loreena McKennitt and Denzel Washington.
• I love my family and friends!

The values I live by to run my VA business

I’ve reached a point in my business life that I know I’m not the cheapest. And that’s fine – I’m not in business to be the cheapest and get the most clients. I’m in business to offer my experience, skills and expertise to my clients.

I have built a team around me who have the same values and who are highly skilled in their area of expertise.

Together, we provide our clients with exceptional customer service, reliability and integrity.

I love the work I do and the people I get to work with. If you’re one of them, thank you! Feel free to share a fact about yourself that we may not have known!

The post Revealed: The virtual assistant behind the business appeared first on Interim Business Solutions.

I set my business up to provide regular daily, weekly or monthly support for our clients. Others call on us just for ad hoc support when they need us. There are some services you’d only need occasionally, and we’re fine with that!

Take our client Patrice Higgins for example. Patrice is the owner and principal consultant of Patrice Higgins & Associates, a boutique research, learning and management consultancy firm. Since 2013, we’ve helped Patrice with the formatting of reports and internal documents, as and when they’re needed.

Recently we were delighted when Patrice asked us to convert her logo into various logo-type files. Would you believe the only version she had was embedded in a Word document? She had never been given access to the actual image file.

Not only did we convert her logo, but we provided her with a basic style guide so, in future, she’d know what her brand colours and fonts are.

She then asked if we could create an editable diagram (once again from a PDF she couldn’t access) that she could update and insert into an evaluation report. Using PowerPoint (as we knew Patrice had this program), we supplied instructions on how she can now do a simple ‘Save As’ to save it as a PNG file and insert the diagram into her report.

Here’s what Patrice says about her experience

 “As a small business owner, I am so grateful to have found Kirsty Wilson and her team. They have been critical in helping me build my business over a number of years. Kirsty and her colleagues consistently demonstrate a high level of efficiency in completing all our requests together with friendly and professional service.  No job is too small. For a busy person it is wonderful to be able to turn to Kirsty and her team when extra support is needed.”
– Patrice Higgins, Patrice Higgins & Associates 

If you need some ad hoc business support, our team is happy to help  

There are lots of little business tasks that you’d only need the occasional help with – like Patrice and her reports. When you find these little tasks, rather than trying to fit them into your schedule, chat to us about how we can help you.

Just give us a call on 1300 377 427 or drop an inquiry via our Contact page.

P.S. Check out 60 Ways a VA (and team) Can Support You and Your Business.

P.S.S. And remember this little line…

If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional,
wait until you work out what it costs to do it yourself!

The post Case Study | Ad hoc business support as and when you need it appeared first on Interim Business Solutions.

Many of our clients fully embrace social media after we set up their accounts. It’s been terrific to see this. They join, initially having no idea what a hashtag is or a RT but after a Skype training session, the light-bulb flashes on and they’re set on their way, to the power of extending that reach further than local that social media offers.

Because we are aware of our client’s needs, our business support services continue to evolve to ensure we are offering the support our clients require. There’s been a demand for social media support for a number of years now. The sort of support we encourage our client’s to engage us for, is to assist with creating tweets from “nuggets” found within their blog posts or articles and then scheduling a handful each day. These “nuggets” allow our clients to be seen as leaders in their industry offering their audience valuable information but it also frees them up to engage on their chosen social media platforms. After all, it is ‘social’ media and the key to relationship marketing and conversions, is building relationships!

Social media support examples we offer business bloggers

CLIENT 1

• Write tweets from 1 x blog post each fortnight (usually 5-10).
• Add to the bank on approval.
• Schedule 3 tweets per day, and
• Rework one tweet per day to form a scheduled Facebook page, LinkedIn and Google+ post.

CLIENT 2

• Write tweets from ad-hoc blog posts (usually 5-10).
• Add to the bank (without client approval – they trust what we do!).
• Schedule 5 tweets per day from Mon-Fri, and
• Rework one tweet per day to form a scheduled LinkedIn and Facebook Profile & Page post.

CLIENT 3

• Write tweets from 1 x blog post each week (usually 5-10).
• Add to the bank on approval.
• Schedule 4 tweets per day.
• Rework one tweet per day to form a scheduled LinkedIn and Facebook Page post.
• 2 RTs per day of relevant industry tweets, and
• Weekly Housekeeping (e.g. un-follow non-followers, stale accounts, etc).

As you can see the support is customised to what the client feels they need and what suits their budget.

Note: When we refer to the ‘bank’ this is simply a place to store all the created tweets of which can be recycled and repurposed in the future. These can be saved in whichever format the client prefers but we generally suggest a Google Spreadsheet where collaboration can take place with ease.

What clients say about our social media support services

“Interim Business Solutions came into my business life when I was struggling to find the time to keep up with the demands of social media. Kirsty Wilson suggested I try their “tweet writing from blog posts” service which I did. I haven’t looked back since. Now my blog posts are sent out into the social media world for me each week, leaving me to concentrate on my clients and business. This is such a great time-saver for me. Most of all, I appreciate Kirsty’s attention to detail and one-on-one care. Kirsty is a gem, and I’m so glad that I found her business.” – Louise McLoughlin, e-BAS Accounts

“I’ve been working with Kirsty for a good few years now, and one of the really helpful tasks she helps me with is creating Tweets based on my blog posts. It’s a seamless way to get someone to help you to create more content that you can do more with…based on one piece of content. The tweets are written bearing in mind the use of good hashtags and “clickable” 140 characters. I also get Kirsty to now help me with the scheduling of these tweets – which has been a massive help. It has definitely increased the traffic to my blog posts and relieved me of a job I don’t like doing and don’t end up doing as a result (which is not good!).” – Shelley Rostlund, Social Intelligence

If you’re actively blogging for your business, the social media support we offer could be perfect to allow you to leverage your content further. It will also give you back more time to focus on building relationships in the virtual space.

Contact us to learn more about creating tweets/posts from those nuggets found within your blog posts. You’d be amazed to know there are always more than just the headline tweet!

The post Social media support for the business owner who writes a blog appeared first on Interim Business Solutions.

Read the full transcript about engaging a virtual assistant…

JANE: Okay, so without further ado, I want to be able to introduce our very special guest today who’s kindly given up her time. Our very special guest today is a Virtual Administration and Social Media Support Partner and she, who along with her team, support time-poor business owners. I think we can all relate to that. For over twelve years, she has run Interim Business Solutions which is a one-stop shop offering general administration, social media, copywriting, outbound calls, and transcription support. She is also an avid power waddler, a connoisseur of coffee and weekend wines, and has a serious case of the travel bug having already visited over thirty-five countries. Please welcome Kirsty Wilson, so everybody give Kirsty a round of applause. All the claps are going crazy on the screen and Kirsty, I am going to un-mute you. Ah, here we go. So there you go. Hi Kirsty, can you hear me okay?

KIRSTY: Hello. Thank you for the lovely introduction.

JANE: My pleasure. I can come along to any speaking gigs you would like and be your MC.

KIRSTY: Hello and hello to all the busy ladies out there.

JANE: Thank you, we’ve got, all the ladies are in a program we have called ‘The Women with the Influence’ program as I mentioned to you, so most of them have practices as Business Coaches, Confidence Coaches or Confidence Experts. Some are building their speaking part of their business, some are building the mentoring part of their businesses and we’ve got a couple who focus on their message around resilience. So, they’re all sort of delivering in those modes of speaking, training, coaching; all those things that you’re very used to, Kirsty,  so I knew that you would have to be the person that I could ask to come on. You know, having done a bit of work with you I love how you operate, so really appreciate you coming on because of your awareness of this industry and you’ve been around for twelve years. You’ve been doing this for twelve years, my God.

KIRSTY: Well, the business has changed over that time. In the early days I even did a lot of site work because the access to the internet just wasn’t what it is now. I then joined social media, but that’s all part of my story further along.

JANE: Tell us about that. Tell us about how you started and about the business itself and tell us all about you.

KIRSTY: I’m actually a four year trained Primary School Teacher but there was no teaching work when I got back from my overseas trip having travelled to thirty-five countries and I ended up just having a change of direction. It all just came my way and one thing led to another. I managed to end up being the Business Manager at a tax and accounting firm for six years where I really learned a lot about business and running a business, which I’d had no exposure to before and thought, I could be my own boss. What can I do to be my own boss, because I was tired of having a boss.

I knew the Virtual Assistant industry was around. It wasn’t what it is now but it was around, and I started my business in 2005 when I really knew there was a need for small businesses and solopreneurs to access business admin support. As I mentioned, a lot of it was, you know, site work with a bit of virtual, and then in 2008 I discovered social media and that’s when the virtual side really just took off.

JANE: Right.

KIRSTY: I pretty much stopped all site work and became a hundred percent virtual. Most of my clients have actually come from Twitter.

JANE: Really?

KIRSTY: Twitter was amazing. Back in 2008 I joined. In 2009 and 2010 it was a very different place to what it is now, in that it was all very organic. The marketers hadn’t discovered it, the bots, the spammers etc etc. It was really just about networking in the virtual space and unlike Facebook which you need to be friends, you could connect with anyone and everyone, it was open slather on Twitter. It was very easy to find people using hashtags. Hashtags were first, you know, generated on Twitter. So to date I’ve had about two hundred and ninety enquiries from Twitter with a forty-seven percent conversion!

The results from Twitter has left all other platforms miles behind. You know, that’s just been amazing. My biggest client I met in 2009 and she’s regional England. She’s a client still to this date. Social media has been what has encouraged and developed the reach for my business.

JANE: That’s incredible, Kirsty. So do you still use Twitter today for clients?

KIRSTY: I do, but I schedule a lot and I generally check-in frequently during the day. The engagement just isn’t there like it used to be, and for myself, I mean really, I don’t need all these platforms anymore. I mean even yesterday I had three referrals in twenty-four hours.

Really, I could walk away from social media because I get so many referrals. It’s a wonderful place to be in but because I offer it as a service, I need to be seen doing it. There’s nothing worse than someone saying “Oh, you know I’m an expert or a guru in this, that and the other” and you go and check them out, and you think “Oh but you know you’ve only got a hundred and twenty followers and you’re only following eighty. How can you be a social media guru?”  You do, you’ve got to be seen doing it if you’re going to offer it.

JANE: That’s right, exactly. So, you and I, for everyone’s benefit Kirsty and I have been working on a project for a client. This client has a practice, he actually had more of a business, so we’ve been talking about this concept of “worker, thinker, hustler” Kirsty.

KIRSTY: Yes.

JANE: And different business models around when we say a “worker” is someone who thrives on being in the training room and delivery or speaking, but a “creator” is someone, I’m sorry, a “thinker” is someone who tends to, you know, build a lot of their IP and their own thinking and their own concepts, and then we talk about the “hustler” or the selling side of it. It’s a concept taken from a lady called Lisa O’Neill, who’s a Thought Leader in New Zealand, and we talk about getting that balance right. So Kirsty and I have been working with an expert who is very heavy “worker”, very heavy on delivery. Loves delivery, loves being in the training room and doesn’t do as much of “thinker”. What we’ve been doing is helping him to sort of position himself as a less of a business partner in connecting with other businesses who already have that IP and delivering it and helping him set up his own personal brand a little bit more solidly. He has had it, but it’s only been really for at first speaking and then all the programs are delivered through these other brands. Kirsty and I’ve been working with him on helping him to pull that brand out more and set up, and to make that all happen. What we’ve had to do is set up in the background, and Kirsty’s been working on this and she’s done this for other experts, is, you know, setting up the back end like Insightly in this case, and splitting lists and setting up MailChimp and all that sort of stuff. Kirsty, what are you, what do you notice? You’ve worked with experts and then you’ve worked with other business owners that are not necessarily speakers, coaches, trainers. What do you notice is the big difference working with or supporting experts and, sort of, particularly because your business aim is about Interim Business Solutions. You kind of come in before they’re putting on a full-time Business Manager or something like that. Is that right?

KIRSTY: Largely, I mean a lot of them are just solopreneurs and they just don’t have the volume of work to have an employee nor do they want one. For myself, largely the big motivation to start my business was to give business owners, employers, whatever, a choice to how they got their administration done because having an employee, you have to pay all your overheads with annual leave, sick leave, etc. There’s a lot of  other things you’ve got to take into consideration whereas, obviously, if you have a contractor, you get the support, you get the jobs done, you’ve got someone to bounce the ideas off because they’re a business owner as well and they get the hours that are involved. Of course then they send you an invoice, you pay the invoice and that’s it.

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: Whereas you don’t have all the other, you know, possible downtime you may experience using an employee. If I’m not working for you, I’m assisting someone else.

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: But you don’t have to pay for that, so there’s all those sort of things to take into consideration when engaging a virtual assistant / contractor. With experts, I think a lot of them I have found, this is just from my perception of twelve years, and not just the speaker experts but obviously the bookkeepers and then anyone who’s running their own business, they’re experts in their own area, is that generally they’re all very smart and that’s why they’re doing what they’re doing, and they’re ideas people.

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: And so a lot of the time they don’t have the time for the detail because they’re too busy delivering and having ideas.

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: That’s where they need the admin support because generally us admin people, we are very detail orientated. You know we like the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed and I’ll be quite honest, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an ideas person. I’m very much a doer and an implementer, and so that’s why I’m a great partner for those creative people. I can free them up to implement their creative ideas.

JANE: Right.

KIRSTY: Yes, so that’s one thing that I’ve noticed with working with experts of any industry largely.

JANE: Kirsty, what I found, I don’t know if you found this sometimes, when people are starting to grow, they’ve got those ideas. So, for this group we’re starting out doing a lot of this and we can see that they’re often going to ‘get’ they’re going to get busy in the next coming year, next twelve to eighteen months where they start to think “Okay, now might be time.” Where do you start with them if they’re like, say the person we’ve been working with, or if they’re starting to get that momentum, what are some of the first things that you often get them to do? I talk to them about MailChimp is often a good one to start with, because in the work that we do is where I’m packing a lot of IP and we’ve got to get communication and building lists and things, and getting selling ourselves and selling our ideas.

KIRSTY: And the CRM.

JANE: And the CRM. Is that where you generally start?

KIRSTY: It just depends obviously on each person who approaches me and what the nature of their industry is. I mean, some know they need help. They’re getting super busy in their business but they’ve never used a VA before. They can’t get around their head letting go of stuff and so I usually always start with “Ok, so what’s one task or one thing you don’t like to do or you know you shouldn’t be doing? We’ll work out a system and a process so that you can hand it over”. Basically then, that’s a great starting point and obviously then you can determine whether they might have a CRM or they’re doing newsletters. I’ve had some who just don’t have time for it and they don’t need it.

JANE: Right.

KIRSTY: I’ve got another lady who really needed a CRM, and I set her up with one. She does not touch it. She’ll actually even email me every time she wants to send me something and say “What’s your address again?” and I’ll have to reply back “It’s in your CRM” and she says, “Oh yeah, I forgot I got that!”. She just doesn’t use it. I manage it, I look after it, I use it. She just doesn’t go near it!

JANE: Funny.

KIRSTY: Everybody works differently. Even, every VA is going to be either a good fit or not a good fit, because everyone will work differently. As we all know, not everyone’s your cup of tea and it’s going to be the same in this relationship too. So it’s really important that you find someone who you really gel with because obviously if that relationship is strong, everything will just fall into place and work really well.

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: The VA will bend over backwards to support you, especially if you’re gracious and you’re a joy to work with.

JANE: Isn’t it funny? I was actually going to say that. Kirsty and I were talking the other day about the difference between working with different clients, and you were saying, and everybody’s a bit different and not to make it a men versus women kind of thing, but we were talking a bit about how the difference between when you’re working and supporting other women, what are some of the things you notice when you’re working with them from your perspective?

KIRSTY: Generally, they’re much better communicators than men. If we’re going to do comparisons. Look, I’ve actually told Jane this little story, but I mean I’ve had a fair few fellas this year who, you might say to them “Now do you want ABC or XYZ?” and they’ll reply with “Yes”. Just “thanks” to everything. It’s like “thanks” and you’re thinking “What do you want?”. They just don’t like to elaborate. You’ve always got to go back to them and clarify which you don’t really want to be doing that, but as a VA you can never assume what clients want.

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: As soon as you assume, you’re going to assume the wrong thing. I clarify anything that’s not clear, but generally, I find the ladies do tend to give the information first up.

JANE: Right.

KIRSTY: That’s something I’ve noticed over the twelve years. I could be generalising but it’s been my experience. The blokes are like “Here, can you get this done?” You do it, and they reply with “Thanks”.

JANE: Whereas we…

KIRSTY: During Easter, I actually did four hours of work for a client that do monthly reports and they’re always done over the first and second of each month, which of course just fell over Easter. Look, I was around. It was no big deal for me to do that. I was more than happy to do it. I had nothing planned and I spoke to her yesterday and she says to me “I really need to send you something. We were so grateful that you did the reports”. I said “You don’t need to send me anything, you know. This is what I do for you.” They are just such a joy to work with that you’re more than happy to help them.

JANE: Yes, that’s reassuring for us because I know when I started, I hadn’t heard of Virtual Assistants before and I just thought “Ah, would someone really want to help me with this? Really? Who would want to help me with this?” That was definitely my experience. I couldn’t believe this industry actually existed and the wonderful support I got and before I started to get to a point where I needed someone full-time. I loved that I got the same experience, same connection with the lady I worked with when I started.

KIRSTY: That’s really important. Yes, that’s very good.

JANE: Kirsty, I don’t know if you find this, but sometimes the question I get asked is “Could I really engage someone to help me? Doesn’t it cost the same as almost putting on someone? What if I have a quiet month?” You know, things like that. What do you find, and it doesn’t necessarily even have to be yourself, just in the industry in general. Some are on hourly rates or some you buy a certain set amount of hours or some are a monthly fee.

KIRSTY: That’s right.

JANE: How does that work?

KIRSTY: Engaging a VA can vary from VA to VA, and as to whether you offshore or use an Australian VA. Obviously an Aussie VA is going to charge higher because their cost of living is higher and all those sort of things, but the term “virtual assistant” is really broad. It’s anyone who works virtually, so it could be a bookkeeper or it could just be someone who does copy typing, so the rates are going to vary and also the way some have programs and some do hourly rate. I generally just do hourly rate, though I might quote for projects because I do project-based work as well. It just really varies from job to job, but all my regular clients who I do regular work with that I might do daily ad-hoc stuff, their regular social media support and things like that, they’re all on a set rate. The rates for an Aussie VA can vary anything really from $30-$35 an hour right up to $70. If they do bookkeeping and they’re a BAS agent, because obviously they’ve got all their learning to keep up to date with, so it really will vary. Obviously their years of experience will reflect as well. A new VA, who might be sort of early twenties with really no experience or business experience would probably charge $30 to $35 an hour.

JANE: Right.

KIRSTY: Of course that includes their Superannuation, tax, holiday and sick leave and everything like that.

JANE: So they sort all that out. They’re invoicing you.

KIRSTY: That’s right. They’re business owners so whatever arrangement you come up with; whether it’s on a retainer or an hourly rate, then when they invoice it’s based on what’s been provided for that period.

JANE: Yes. Kirsty, I think sometimes. I know when I started there were two things I was most concerned about. One was trust and somebody having access to all my stuff.

KIRSTY: Yes.

JANE: My client database and that’s why I held off probably for a while because I was like, “I don’t, I’ve got to give this to someone I don’t even know. Really? Okay.”

KIRSTY: I understand that totally.

JANE: Yes, and I had to ask around. I found the easiest way was to ask for a referral which is what you talked about before. How you, in this game it’s a lot about trust, isn’t it? You find someone you like, who you trust, who you think you can work with. Is that what you find?

KIRSTY: Oh for sure. I mean largely, I probably have had more than a dozen referrals this year already, and then for a variety of things as well because I offer a variety of services, so some services I don’t even do myself because that’s not my thing. Many years ago a client said to me “Our Transcriptionist is no longer available, can you do transcription?” and I couldn’t, that’s not my thing. I don’t have a secretarial background but I can probably put a team together and help you out that way. They replied with “You do that, we will know you will manage it and it will all get done.” That experience gave me the business confidence to think I don’t need to just be Kirsty Wilson, the Virtual Assistant but move to Interim Business Solutions, the business.

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: With business confidence and growth and experience, I very much advise “It may not be me doing your work, because I do have a team and I’m almost at capacity myself between the doing and the managing”

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: Of course if someone has a problem with that, well they’ll need to go elsewhere but majority of the time they don’t really care. Certainly all my clients who I work with at the moment, they don’t mind who does the work so long as it gets done and in a timely manner. The good thing there too is that things can tick along. The regular stuff can tick along when I’m on leave as well then.

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: There’s a lot of Virtual Assistants that are very much like a PA and so they might only have one to three clients and do maybe around ten hours with each client per week in that sort of arrangement. Whereas mine’s probably a little different.

JANE: Yes

KIRSTY: In that I offer lots of different services, work with different businesses and I really just always need to have a conversation with anyone that makes an inquiry to work out exactly what they want and whether they can be slotted in really.

JANE: Yes, and that’s what I thought was kind of unique about your business because I’ve just put a picture up here of your home page on your business, and I just grabbed the services and drop-down menu to give people a bit of an idea about the types of things you can get help with. That was one of the concerns that I had too, was do you, like what I was worried about is investing in one person to help me because surely they don’t know how to do everything.

KIRSTY: That’s right, exactly.

JANE: So what happens if they don’t. Do then I have to go and find someone else, or the other thing was what if I just need them to set up something and what if I don’t need them ongoing. Which is what you’re talking about the project-based type things and it might just set up Insightly, or just set up MailChimp or something like that. The other concern I also was worried about was what if they got sick. You know, what happens if they got unwell? Who steps in? There was, to me there are a lot of risk factors that came in. So, in your business with the Interim Business Solutions and this is what I like about your model, is that you’ve got people around you or you’ve got people that you’re delegating tasks to.

KIRSTY: That’s right.

JANE: They’re doing some of these things. One of the questions that’s come through here from Jo. She’s saying “Does Kirsty have a team to delegate to herself or does she do everything and she’s put EVERYTHING in capital letters”.

KIRSTY: No. I don’t do everything. At the moment, I’ve got about twenty-seven active clients so I certainly don’t do everything.

JANE: That’s incredible, isn’t it? That’s a real credit to you.

KIRSTY: What I always say to people is that when you buy a house from a builder, the builder doesn’t build the whole house because he’s obviously not a plumber, an electrician, the tiler. He can’t do all of that, and so a builder sells the concept of the house and what it’s going to look like and then he engages all the subcontractors. The bricklayer, who is the expert in bricklaying and the roofer, putting the roof trusses on and all the rest. That’s basically a good example of my business in that I offer the services that I know that I can easily get others to do. I don’t do websites because that’s a large project and I don’t want to be caught in the middle between a client and a team member managing. It’s about working out what’s fairly easy to get others to do to leverage others and obviously then I can also offer so much more to my clients.

JANE: Yes, that’s right. Your time is focused on being able to be a bit more strategic for them or whatever focus you need. I’m just going to encourage anybody to pop any questions up. Now is a good time to put any questions in the question box. Jo’s popped hers in, so while we’re getting a little bit closer to time, feel free to pop anything you want me to asked and I will ask Kirsty while we’re starting to wrap up. Pop it in there and in the meantime, Kirsty, based on this type of group where we’re starting out and we can sort of start to see “Okay, I’m going to get busy”. At the moment we’re just getting focused on what are we actually selling, what are the programs that we deliver, how much we sell them for, you know juggling families as well because we’re women and we’ve got all those commitments. Is there any anything else that you sort of find that when you’re working with people like us that we should know or be aware of that will help us to grow our practices or that you see opportunities? One of the things I often see is sometimes we hold on too long before we get someone to help.

KIRSTY: Yes, that would be probably my biggest advice is get all your systems and processes documented and streamlined so that you can have all those foundations in place so that you can grow. For myself from day one, I registered for GST. I mean, I know a lot of VAs who would probably try their hardest to keep their income under the seventy-five thousand because registering for GST would be too hard and too scary, whereas I’ve always wanted to be seen as a business owner offering professional services. This is not a little hobby business who does a bit of typing at night when the kids go to bed. All those sorts of foundations. A CRM, I would highly recommend if you haven’t got one. Get one straight away and get all your contacts in there. Whether they be clients, leads, suppliers, you’ve got one central place. I left mine a little bit too long so I relied on MYOB when it was still desktop version.

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: But, of course, that only had minimal information. You couldn’t put notes in there. I mean, there was no room for social media IDs because that hadn’t even really generated back then. So, a CRM that where at least you can have everything there and obviously one that you know you can link to doing your newsletters and correspondence, even better.

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: An Accounting Program as well.

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: Especially if you do charge GST, because you don’t want to be doing it in an Excel spreadsheet.

JANE: No.

KIRSTY: Unless you’ve obviously engaged a Bookkeeper, and your Bookkeeper’s looking after all of that. That’s probably just going to vary from business to business. I use Xero and I do all my own bookkeeping because I actually quite enjoy it, but when I moved from MYOB to Xero, I thought “Right, I’ve got to let go of something”, so I let go of doing my BAS and I didn’t want to learn how to do it in Xero. One of my clients who is a Bookkeeper and who’s just lovely to work with. We work very similarly and it just made sense to say to her “You can do my BAS now!”.

JANE: Great, so good if you can find someone like that. You know, it just makes such a difference, especially doing accounts.

KIRSTY: Yes. The biggest thing would be just to get everything streamlined, get all your processes so that you’re not feeling like you’re juggling balls, and balls are dropping off the desk.

JANE: That’s something like, because sometimes we’re so focused on trying to get revenue in and an income, if you haven’t necessarily started those processes. I just started in a Word document and just started to capture, okay well what are the five things. Even just starting to flesh it out. I just had a Word document for most things, like how do I deal with a customer but then an incoming inquiry or how I booked someone in. I just, I did probably one thing a week or something like that. I just allocated in an hour in the calendar. It was probably usually a Friday job, I think I used to do it. Is that something that, like as you’re growing, if you haven’t been able to capture those things, is that something that VAs will help you with as well?

KIRSTY: Oh, for sure. Yes, especially because we’ve done it. I mean, I did it twelve years ago. It’s sometime ago now, but you’ve got a fair idea. The sooner you really start nutting out the whole processes of it, things will just always tick along. Like for me, I’ve got an enquiry form and whilst I’ve got nearly everything that’s not paper, it’s one thing that I do use is paper because quite often when a phone call comes in, I’m not at my desk. I might be somewhere else. I work at home so I’ve got a home office and I can just write everything down. It’s also the prompts of everything I need to ask; how did you find out about me, what do you need and what’s your website and what’s your email? Just all the things. I don’t get off the phone and think “Oh dear, I forgot to ask this or that”, and then, of course, that information then gets plugged into my CRM. So, of course, even if that person who made the enquiry doesn’t convert, they might come back three years later or refer someone. I’ve always got that history of when I’ve spoken to someone or who referred them, did I meet them on Twitter or Facebook etc, and that’s all documented. That’s just the enquiry, so then the enquiry goes into the CRM and I send an engagement letter if they’re interested to proceed. They sign and then they become a client, so there’s that whole on-boarding process as well.

JANE: Yes. I even just encourage when people are starting out, in particular say this group where we’re getting started, I say even if you can just have some of those things even  in a spreadsheet or Word document. Even if you haven’t got a CRM system just yet, is even just get the contacts out of the email and get it on it spreadsheet because when it comes time to getting help, it’s much easier. Just click over and you save money and time.

KIRSTY: That’s right. Just import it. As you would know, Jane, the beauty of a CRM is that you can basically tag people. If you need to do a search for like, for me, I have tagged past client and current client and then also all the services. If suddenly someone says to me, “I really need a web designer. Who can you recommend?”, I can go to my CRM and bring up my list of all my web designers that I’ve got in there and who does what. That way, I can help people connect with people as well, so I can think “This person does WordPress, or this person specialises in Squarespace” or whatever.

JANE: Yes.

KIRSTY: I can then refer on the most appropriate contacts. Your CRM can become so valuable, not just for yourself but connecting others as well.

JANE: I love that. That’s excellent, so you’ve given us so much valuable information, Kirsty. I know how busy you are with twenty-seven clients on the flow. My God.

KIRSTY: Some are sleeping right now.

JANE: It’s always nice when they sleep, unless you’re getting ones like me and I don’t sleep and I’m getting emails all the time. I’ve just put the website up on here and I’ve put some of the information. Kirsty’s available at your website, which is Interim Business Solutions. Yes?

KIRSTY: Just interimbusiness.com.au. No “solutions” on the end because I didn’t want a really long URL and I didn’t want “ibs” because it’s irritable bowel syndrome!

JANE: I love it.

KIRSTY: It was a bit tricky trying to work out and, of course, this was twelve years ago before you really knew about SEO and I should have a keyword in there but it is what it is.

JANE: Thank you so much for joining us, so if you want to connect with Kirsty, follow her on Instagram, she’s got a great food feed that she puts out. It is great and yummy.

KIRSTY: Well, I think for me it’s not just about broadcasting my business, it’s about connecting with me as a person. On social media, followers are going to get a good mix of what I offer but also who I am and what I like.

JANE: Yes. We often talk about you’ve got to be visible and you’ve got to have content that shows the credibility but we also talk about personality. That’s what I love about you, you totally get that in your Social Feeds, and I love that you –

KIRSTY: Being authentic as well, you know. What you see is what you get.

JANE: You’re a straight shooter. I just love that about you. That you just know where you stand, and it’s just get in and get it done.

KIRSTY: That’s right.

JANE: Connect with Kirsty. She’s a great person to have around you or to know, but even if, just knowing how this industry works so that when the time comes if you do need help, hopefully today you feel a little bit like “okay, I’ve now got a little bit of a sense” and maybe not as fearful as maybe I was when I was like I’ve got to finally make this leap when the time came. I really appreciate you coming on board today. Thank you so much.

KIRSTY: It’s been a pleasure. Thank you for considering me to be part. It’s been a lot of fun sharing more about the VA industry.

JANE: That’s great. All right, I’m going to close off. We got a clap and a round of applause. Katherine’s in the dentist and clapping away already. She’s not mucking around, so you’ve got claps all round. They’re all clapping on the street.

KIRSTY: Thank you.

JANE: So just to wrap up. I’m going to mute Kirsty. All right, so I hope that you found that useful. I’m going to put the recording up in the Facebook group and love for you to share what was useful, what was helpful and I can give Kirsty some other feedback as we go on as well. I talked about the changes to accountability game that I’m going to make, I talked about Tracy Hughes coming up. Then also talked about this week which “Power Up” which is coming up at the coast on the 18th of May, so I’ll be putting some more information up with chasing up final details of accommodation if you want to stay. Just a reminder to keep using your chart. We talked this week on setting up the habits and routines to match the chart so it’s reaching out to the five per day, writing your blog. If I looked at your calendar, ideally it matches the tasks that are on here. The calendar, if you look at it, it does have that balance of “thinker”, “worker” and “hustler”. It’s got those three things integrated into it, so is taking that and going “well how much time do I need per day to be doing each of these things” along with obviously delivering your work. If you haven’t already is, Virginia will be keeping an eye on your tracking document. This is your weekly accountability and tracking sheet, so if you can keep your numbers. As Kirsty would say, if I don’t know, you’ve got to know your numbers, you’ve got to know, you’ve got to get close to your numbers. Sometimes I think we sort of distance ourselves a little bit and we focus a bit too much on the creativity, but we want to focus on what are the actions you’re taking, how many people are reaching out to, how many activity, how many meetings have you had, how many sales have you had, how much IP are you unpacking? Get close to your numbers. These are things I monitor in my practice and I know that those whether they’re starting out or if had a practice for a long time, they watch these numbers and I would really encourage you to continue to keep filling that out. Also to keep encouraging you to filling out, sorry to keep watching the “expert to influencer” modules in in the online area so that you can continue to use the resources tools in there. If you’re writing your book this quarter, continue to. You’ve got that there if you’re doing your webcast. There’s the documents there on how to plan and deliver your webcasts, all those types of things. Make sure you’re still following that. Have a fantastic rest of the week as there’s only one day till Friday. Have a great weekend and I will catch you next week. Thanks again Kirsty for joining us.

End of Transcript

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